[manman]

our new Samoyed puppy (11 weeks) seems to be taking quite a bit longer to poop after eating than most of the information we've read and heard from our breeder. All that information says that a puppy should need to use the bathroom about 10-20 minutes after eating, but our boy seems to take hours. Yesterday morning I took him out at about 8am and he went, then we fed him. After feeding him we took him out a few times, but he wouldn't go at all. It took all the way until after his next meal (6pm) for him to finally go. That seems like a REALLY long time compared to what we've read. Of course we only tried for the next few hours after the first meal, so he could have had to go a little sooner and been holding it in, but still a few hours is a lot longer than 20 minutes...

One thing that I'm sure has to do with it is that we are switching him from a BARF diet to kibble. It's still the second day though, so there's not much kibble in there it's mostly his original diet (although I should note he DOES like the kibble a lot. Not as much as his chicken, but WAY more than the ground up organ meat mixture he has with it, haha) Could this also be due to his adjusting to the new environment?

Thanks!

 

[Westhighlander]

Every dog is different. You'll figure out his schedule sooner or later. Just make a note of when he goes everyday, pretty soon you'll know when he needs to go.

 

[TooneyDogs]

It might to help to know the average digestion rates: Dry kibble takes about 12 hours to process/digest and eliminate, moist kibble takes about 8 hours and RAW takes 5-6 hours. Times will vary with water intake, exercise, sleep and metabolism rate.

 

[PattyU]

Hi, I read the 10 to 20 minutes after eating, too, but my puppy doesn't follow the rules either. He seems healthy, is growing, and on high quality puppy kibble. He seems to do his biggest poops early in the morning when he hasn't eaten for several hours. I think that's just him, so I'm not going to worry about it.

 

[Summerhawk]

My dogs get fed around 8ish in the am., and then walked at about noon. They almost never poop on that particular walk. They pooped more often when they were allowed free access to the yard, of course, but it doesn't sound like there's anything amiss.

It sounds like you're doing a good job, quite frankly!! You didn't just switch food - you're slowly transitioning, and you are paying attention to things like his bowel movements and such. I think your pup's in good hands!

 

[manman]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. We took him out a few times overnight and he went twice, so it seems like he's doing well. That plus the information you gave has put me more at ease.

We're doing everything we can to make sure Cosmo has a smooth happy transition into his new home, and a fun healthy future ahead of him. Everyone here on these boards seems very helpful and friendly, so I'm sure we'll be here a lot!

 

[manman]

an update on this-

I thought everything was fine, but since my last post he hasn't pooped at ALL... The last time was early yesterday morning (well over 24 hours ago), and since then he's eaten on this regular schedule (8am and 6pm) but hasn't had a bowel movement yet.

He seems to have a love hate relationship with the spot he started going in- sometimes when we got there he would sniff around and go, and sometimes he immediately wants to be out of there and shows it by biting his leash and trying to pull me away to come back home or something. I don't let him pull me, I usually give a sharp loud "no" and pull the leash out of his mouth, calm him down, wait a minute and then move on- but so far it's been the same routine every time I try (about once every 4 hours since the last time). I've walked him around and taken him to several other places to try as well, but no luck. One side note that is strange as well- he has been great about waiting to urinate outside, always going in the same spot- but this morning we were out for about 20 minutes, and hit that spot several times, walked and ran a bit- I gave him plenty of opportunities. He showed he wanted to go back in side, then the SECOND he got inside he ran to the middle of the carpet and peed! Seemed like it was almost out of spite or something, haha.

As I said, we're switching him from a BARF diet to kibble, and at first I did think I was supposed to transition slowly, so I was mixing them - but then I read that I shouldn't do that because of differing digestion rates. That seems like the most logical source, but he likes the kibble (nature's balance ) and isn't vomiting or showing any other signs of discomfort, so I don't know...

I told our vet and she said It's probably ok because it was only 24 hours and to call her if one more day went by... But just wondering if anyone else might have some experience with something like this.

 

[TooneyDogs]

You'll find as you go along that different foods can have a dramatic effect on their systems. One slice of turkey can give some dogs the runs for days; some foods will create terrible gas problems and other foods seem to bind them up or give them huge bursts of energy.

 

[manman]

hmm, ok thanks. I guess the fact that nobody finds it alarming, (including the vet) is a good sign... Because of what I've heard about mixing raw and kibble, can anyone suggest something I might try to make the transition as easy as possible on him and get him regular again. I've heard just cold turkey, fasting for a short while then cold turkey, and splitting up the meals into one raw, one kibble. Does anyone think maybe adding some water to moisten the kibble would help?

Thanks

 

[TooneyDogs]

Traditional wisdom is gradually mixing over 3 days...1/4, 1/2, 3/4 then full. Moistening the kibble is a good idea. Warm water and let it sit for a few minutes.